"EVERYTHING STARTS SOMEWHERE, although many physicists disagree. But people have always been dimly aware of the problem with the start of things. They wonder aloud how the snowplough driver gets to work, or how the makers of dictionaries look up the spelling of the words. Yet there is the constant desire to find some point in the twisting, knotting, ravelling nets of space-time on which a metaphorical finger can be put to indicate that here, here, is the point where it all began . . ."

This is a re-read for me, and it's not the first re-read. This is one of the books that I love reading around this time of the year. It's perfect - when the saccharine mush of festive cheer gets going, I like to be reminded of the darker side of festive legends.